Winter Haven lineman Mike Arnold would commit on spot if offered by FSU

By Chris Hays | Florida RecruitingOrlando Sentinel

Mike Arnold, OL-DL, 2015, Winter Haven, photo

CHRIS HAYS/ORLANDO SENTINEL

OL-DL Mike Arnold, a junior at Winter Haven High, was one of nearly 100 college football prospects attending the Miami-FSU game in Tallahassee on Saturday night.

OL-DL Mike Arnold, a junior at Winter Haven High, was one of nearly 100 college football prospects attending the Miami-FSU game in Tallahassee on Saturday night. (CHRIS HAYS/ORLANDO SENTINEL)

Amid all of the high-profile high school football prospects roaming the sideline prior to Florida State’s battle with Miami on Saturday night stood a player who not only would love to have a scholarship offer from FSU, but Mike Arnold is also on the verge of being one of those high-profile prospects.

The two-way Winter Haven junior lineman, whose teammates call him "Big Mike," took in the spectacle of one of college football’s biggest games of the 2013 season and was basking in the moment.

“It was a great vibe. I was kind of expecting [FSU] to win, but I didn’t know by how much,” Arnold said Sunday of the Seminoles’ 41-14 victory that kept FSU very much alive in the chase for the BCS National Championship. The latest BCS rankings released Sunday night have FSU at No. 2 behind Alabama. “I’ve been to a game there before, but that atmosphere last night .. that was the first time I’d been in that.

Arnold, a 6-foot-5, 280-pound offensive and defensive lineman, is still waiting on an offer from the Seminoles and he said FSU defensive line coach Odell Haggins told him it was only a matter of time.

“Coach Odell told me I will receive one, he just said it would be during the spring time,” said Arnold, who had time to chat with Haggins during Saturday’s visit to Doak Campbell Stadium.

One reason the Seminoles might be waiting is that they could be making sure they have Arnold on their list of priorities, because once they offer, Arnold said he’s a Seminole.

“Once they offer me, I will commit … and he already knows that. He’s just trying to make me wait,” Arnold laughed.

Arnold, whose 7-2 Winter Haven squad will open the state playoffs at home as the Class 6A, District 11 champions and will play host to Cape Coral Ida Baker in the first round, said he has been playing a little defensive end for the Blue Devils, as well as tackle.

“It’s fun and I got my 40 [yard dash] time down to 4.9 [seconds],” he said. “But I can see myself playing on both sides of the ball.”

When given the opportunity to choose what side of the ball he’d like to play in college, Arnold could not decided.

“I like both,” he said. “but I can see myself at [defensive tackle] once I get there [to college].

Arnold said that as much as he would love to don the garnet and gold of the Seminoles, the team that has been recruiting him the hardest is Miami, which has already offered him a scholarship, as has UCF, Duke, Wake Forest and NC State.

He also said the outcome of a game he’s attending, such as Miami’s lopsided loss to the Seminoles, doesn’t really have much influence on what his college decision might be.

“Nah, it doesn’t really have any impact,” Arnold said.

At this point, Arnold just wishes he could speed up the whole process and peer into his future so he knows where he’ll end up.